The Marlborough green gecko, also known as the manuka gecko,Tony Jewell, photos by Rod Morris, "''Reptiles and Amphibians of New Zealand''", New Holland, 2008(''Naultinus manukanus'') is a small species of

gecko Geckos are small, mostly carnivorous lizards that have a wide distribution, found on every continent except Antarctica. Belonging to the infraorder Gekkota, geckos are found in warm climates throughout the world. They range from . Geckos ar ...

endemic to New Zealand. It grows to a maximum of 70mm, and is green, with some individuals displaying gold markings. The underside of the gecko is a lighter green in females, and silvery in males. The holotype is in the collection of the

Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa is New Zealand's national museum and is located in Wellington. ''Te Papa Tongarewa'' translates literally to "container of treasures" or in full "container of treasured things and people that spring fr ...

Conservation status

In 2012 the

Department of Conservation An environmental ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for the environment and/or natural resources. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of the Environment ...

classified the Marlborough gecko as ''At Risk'' under the

New Zealand Threat Classification System The New Zealand Threat Classification System is used by the Department of Conservation to assess conservation priorities of species in New Zealand. The system was developed because the IUCN Red List, a similar conservation status system, had some ...

. It was judged as meeting the criteria for ''At Risk'' threat status as a result of it having a low to high ongoing or predicted decline. This gecko is also regarded as being ''Conservation Dependent''.

References

External links

New Zealand Herpetological Society Page on Marlborough gecko
Naultinus Reptiles of New Zealand Endemic fauna of New Zealand Reptiles described in 1955 Taxa named by Charles McCann Endemic reptiles of New Zealand {{gecko-stub